Stacking Stones​A Creative Craft Blog

From the mind of Jason Kapcala comes an eclectic journal dedicated to the study of creative writing, rock music, tailgating, and other miscellany. The musings, meditations, contemplations, and ruminations expressed here are my own unless otherwise indicated. Please feel free to share your comments, thoughts, and opinions, but do so respectfully and intelligently.

Real food, worth eating, with artistry. In a room full of offerings, Morgantown’s Sargasso stood out at the Taste of West Virginia, an event presented by the American Red Cross one June evening at the Erickson Alumni Center.

The chefs served Bao Buns with Cantonese Char Siu Pork—Asian BBQ—and offered two fluorescent-red sauces to please palates of differing heat tolerance. The sweet and salt seasonings of the shredded meat contrasted pleasantly with a vegetable slaw layer on top. The steamed, slightly sticky bao buns, a tradition in Dim Sum buffets, added another level of chewy texture to the sandwich. The appeal of this particular meat-filled bun went further for me. Presentation of barbecued-anything can be sloppy or thoughtless—think lets-just-place-this-baby-on-a-hunk-of-Styrofoam-so-nothing-spills approach. But the neatness of the bread pleased the eye as did a sized-to-the-sandwich, small durable paper plate.

Presentation of barbecued-anything can be sloppy or thoughtless . . . . But the neatness of the bread pleased the eye as did a sized-to-the-sandwich, small durable paper plate.

Although the Cold Sherried-Cantaloupe Soup, referred to by one of the servers as a gazpacho, didn’t deliver on sherry-flavor or on looks, it was one of the few fruity offerings that evening that didn’t come slathered in chocolate. Believe me, I love chocolate but strawberries dunked in the precious stuff don’t convince me of a chef’s competence or that s/he’s creative. I appreciated the thought that’d gone into the soup. I understood it to be a cooling contrast to the spicy barbecued pork, as well as a lighter, low-cal accompaniment before dessert. But when I saw the cantaloupe ball sitting in a pool of gelatinous orange juice I immediately thought, raw egg yolk. Regardless, I slurped some of the liquid down but felt so much more flavor must’ve been intended. I hope they’ll work on this recipe and bring it back next year, much improved.

Vanilla Cheesecake

Dessert was a little beauty. A bite-sized portion of cheesecake accented with a red raspberry and a purple Johnny-Jump-Up/pansy sat in a mini-paper wrapper—I appreciated the avoidance of plastic as a serving container as I had with the paper plate for their sandwich. Light and foamy, the vanilla cheesecake didn’t overwhelm as so many cheesecakes can. Vanilla was the perfect flavor to complete this restaurant’s menu sample.